


Come With Me

by kisslicknipsuck



Series: 2013 adventchallenge [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-02
Updated: 2013-12-02
Packaged: 2018-01-03 05:43:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1066515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisslicknipsuck/pseuds/kisslicknipsuck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At his feet, the remains of a teddy bear lay strewn in the grass like some kind of preschool murder scene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come With Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'Teddy Bear' over @ LJ's adventchallenge for Day 1/25. Unbeta'd.

It was the boy's tears that finally did it. After everything Severus had seen them do to him over the past few months, Potter had never before cried. Not after Petunia or her walrus shouted at him. Not when he was worked like a house-elf. Not when the smaller walrus assaulted him. Never a single tear. 

But there he stood next to the tool shed in the back garden, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs, face reddened and scrunched up in misery, tears falling freely, fists clenched at his side, posture hunched. 

At his feet, the remains of a teddy bear lay strewn in the grass like some kind of preschool murder scene. The fluffy brown limbs had been torn from the torso, its white stuffing ripped out in chunks and left to blow away in the wind. The single button eye left to it had popped off and disappeared in the grass when the youngest Dursley had finished off his massacre by ripping the bear's head in half. 

Potter gazed down at his bear, seemingly paralyzed, and cried while Severus watched, hidden under a Disillusionment Charm and the lush branches of a happily blooming lilac bush in the corner of the garden. And despite how much he told himself that he loathed the boy, how much the boy deserved his loathing, he felt his heart softening in the face of the tears streaking down the child's cheeks. 

Potter wasn't so different from himself when he'd been a boy. Alone and unloved, trudging around in second-hand clothes that were too big, clinging to the smallest comforts he could find. Severus had had his books and Lily. Potter had had his bear. Severus had seen the child carrying it with him everywhere he went, caring for it like it was alive. 

It was only a toy, but it was likely the only one Potter had ever been allowed. And while the loss of a material object hardly compared to the death of the only person Severus had ever loved, he still couldn't help the empathy welling up inside him, couldn't help but want to soothe the child and avenge his pain when he watched Harry Potter crumble in the face of his destroyed teddy. 

No child should be treated that way, not even Potter's brat. Especially not Lily's son. 

So against his orders to only watch, against Dumbledore's will, he dissolved the Disillusionment Charm and approached the boy. 

Potter didn't noticed him until his shadow touched the bear's remains, and when he did, he gasped and took a step back while he hastily wiped his tears off his face. "Wh-Who are you? Where did you come from?" he stammered, glancing around the fenced garden anxiously. 

Severus said nothing, but held the boy's eyes as he crouched down in front of the bear parts. Potter only looked away from him when Severus pulled out his wand. 

"What's that?" Potter said. The frown on his face softened with his curiosity and he stepped forward to observe Severus's wand. 

" _Reparo_ ," Severus incanted, flicking his wand at the bear. He watched with mild satisfaction as Potter's face lit up with the toy's resurrection. 

Potter darted forward to grab the bear from the ground and touch it all over as if he didn't believe it was real. Reassured, he clutched the bear to his chest and looked up at Severus. "How did you do that?"

"Magic, of course." 

"Magic's not real," Potter argued immediately. Petunia's influence, no doubt. 

Severus raised a brow at him and looked pointedly at the bear in Potter's arms. "Isn't it?"

Potter looked at the bear, too, and didn't say anything more. 

"Mr Potter," Severus began, but Potter cut in before he could continue. 

"How did you know my name?"

"I knew your mother. We were at school together."

Potter's eyes widened and he stepped closer to Severus without realizing it. "You did? What was she like? Aunt Petunia says she was selfish and stupid, but I don't believe her."

Severus silently fumed at the poisonous lies Petunia had told the boy about Lily. His hand tightened on his wand and his face must've darkened because Potter quickly stepped back from him again. 

It took a moment to regain his composure, and then he said, "It was wise of you not to believe your Aunt, Mr Potter. Your mother was the most selfless person I knew, and as clever as they came. Petunia was always jealous of her."

Potter nodded sharply, a small smile playing on his lips. "I knew it," he said and then frowned at the ground. 

They were silent for a moment while Severus let Potter process the truth behind Petunia's lies. 

"Mr Potter," Severus finally said when Potter started shuffling his feet, the silence probably making him nervous. "How would you like to leave this place? Leave your Aunt and Uncle?"

"And go with you?" Potter asked without looking at him. 

"Yes." 

Unsure, Potter squeezed his bear tighter and searched the ground as if the dirt and grass would give him answers. 

Severus was aware that his proposition was more than a little suspect. He was but a stranger to the boy; he hadn't even introduced himself. Potter may have only been eight-years-old, and likely Petunia had never bothered to teach him to be wary of strangers, but he'd probably figured it out on his own anyway. 

But he was also being offered the one thing he'd undoubtedly always wanted—to be taken away from his abusers, to be free. Severus knew what he'd have done if he'd been offered the same thing as a boy. 

"Will you teach me magic?"

"Of course," Severus said, nodding, and then stood, offering his hand to the boy. 

Potter only briefly glanced back at the house before looking up at Severus and stepping forward to take his hand.


End file.
